The Slytherin Magus

I rolled around on my bed for a while, trying to figure out a plan of escape.

Well, sitting down on my bed and staring up at the ceiling of my four-poster bed was getting me nowhere so I got down and went back to the common room.

I should have noticed when my dorm was almost empty but for some reason, the common room was deserted.

From the dorms, I could hear a noise like something was going on. I wasn't interested in whatever was going on.

It seemed like my guardian angel was finally taking their job seriously because I could sneak out without getting detected now.

I made my way out of the castle, using the Viaduct Entrance to make my way outside.

As expected, most of the teachers on patrol would concentrate on the interior of the Hogwarts castle. None of them would think to be on the lookout for students sneaking outside.

My destination was the Forbidden Forest. Was it safe? Probably not but it was the perfect spot for what I had to get done.

I snuck past Hagrid's Cabin, keeping to the shadows.

There were a lot of dangerous things in the forest so I wasn't going that deep in, just deep enough to provide me cover.

Now that I had found a perfect location, how would I go about transforming into my Animagus?

I had brought my wand with me and before now, I had already done some research into it.

Transforming into an Animagus the normal way was just short of hellish, the procedure made it so that you would definitely botch it enough times to give up.

I had gotten the skill by purchasing it off my system so I wasn't going the normal route.

But if I had gone the normal route, I would have to go through a series of complex steps to get a mouthful of blood-red potion.

I would then place the tip of my wand against my heart and an incantation 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus' would be chanted then I would drink the potion.

I would then feel fiery pain – lucky me – and an intense double heartbeat.

The shape of the creature which I would shortly transform into would then appear in my mind.

The instructions then warned: 'You must show no fear/ It is too late now, to escape the change you have willed'.

It wasn't the best experience.

Well, I had no blood-red potion but I did have my wand, I would just have to try the incantation and hope for the best.

After I successfully transformed into my Animagus, as long as I practiced often, I would be able to transform wandless and at will.

I found a reasonably okay spot, I made sure that there was a bit of open space to make allowance for if I turned out to be large.

It had been on my mind ever since I cast the Patronus charm. Could my Animagus be a Basilisk?

Animagi being magical creatures was unheard of but I had reincarnated into the world of a book with a system strapped to me too. Anything was possible.

It was the main reason I had to come to the Forbidden Forest, I doubted that something like an actual Basilisk showing up inside the Hogwarts castle would go unnoticed.

I took a deep breath and braced myself, lifting my wand to place the tip just above my heart.

"Amato Animo Animato Animagus." I chanted slowly but in a steady voice.

Nothing happened for the first heartbeat, then the second and the thir…

"Fuck." I bit out when the pain hit.

And just like the instructions said my heartbeat skyrocketed, pumping so fast that it felt like it wanted to jump through my ribcage.

I had seen enough Boggart-Basilisks today to recognize one immediately I saw it. A large coiling Basilisk with an intimidating red plume on his head materialized in my mind.

'Well, shit…'

The transformation was instantaneous, I was suddenly almost at eye-level with the top trees.

For an animal with no legs, I moved insanely fast.

I didn't want to draw attention to myself but I had to check myself out in the forest lake.

I knew there were Centaurs around these parts, I didn't want them reporting to the school.

Well, knowing how tight-lipped the Centaurs were, I probably wouldn't need to worry about that.

As long as I didn't attack any of them everything should turn out fine.

I peeked in the water, it wasn't like I was going to petrify myself right?

It would be problematic for Basilisks if just checking themselves out on a reflective surface rendered them immobile.

Also, I was curious but I should be able to control my abilities, shouldn't I?

I was a first-of-a-kind situation so it wasn't like there was a lot of material for research. Well, now I could make my own observations.

The first thing I noticed was my eyes.

When transforming into an Animagus, Witches and Wizards usually retained tell-tale patterns and features.

My eyes were still the ice-blue I had when I was in human form, it looked really cool.

I raised myself over the lake to get a better look, twisting and turning this way to better see all the good angles.

I immediately noticed when I was being watched, I shot around in that direction to find a fox cowering away beside the trunk of a tree.

I glanced at the water and then looked at it again.

'Hey! It's still alive!'

I noted, so I could control my abilities, that was good to know.

The fox was still cowering and watching me, frozen in place in fear.

'Not anymore.'

Yep, my abilities worked just fine. The fox dropped dead.

I didn't plan to go around murdering all the creatures in the Forbidden Forest, I just wanted to give it a test.

Also, I had given the fox enough time to run.

I spent a while in my Animagus form without even noticing, it was exciting to see what I could do while I was in this form and I might have gotten carried away.

It was advised to safely store your wand while in Animagus form.

It was not a requirement to change back to human form but for a first-timer like me, I had to use a wand.

There was also another of my worries, and that was if I could change back to human form as easily as I had transformed into my Animagus form.

Only one way to find out. I slithered over to where I had hidden my wand and nudged it out from under the thicket I had hidden it in with the tip of my tail.

'Fucckk…' I had no hands.

I just stared at my wand, wondering how the hell I was going to pick it up.

I couldn't use my tail because it was too thick and the wand was too thin.

'Well, this is a problem…'

Who decided that snakes didn't need hands? At least the 'King of Serpents' should be granted hands but no, I had nothing but a tube to work with.

I could pick it up with my teeth but I had gotten a look at my maw in the forest lake, it would be like trying to use a claw tractor… (A/N : forgive me if I got the name wrong, I couldn't find what they're called)

… it would be like trying to use a claw tractor to pick up a stick, it would either be impossible or the stick would shatter.

Anyone bumping into me would probably be wondering why a large ass snake was slithering in circles around a piece of stick.

And I wasn't even as large as I could get. Thank fuck I didn't have to do this every time because if it was impossible to pick up my wand now, I didn't want to imagine how I would have gotten it off the ground after I had maxed out my Titles.

I finally managed to maneuver the stick so that I could successfully pick it up.

If I looked in the lake now, I probably looked like a large snake pretending to smoke with a really short stick.

Now that step 1 was done, I still had to transform back. To do that I had to visualize my human form in my mind.

'That seems simple enough.'

Or so I thought!

I should have spent more time staring at myself in the mirror because it seemed like I wasn't visualizing hard enough.

After what felt like ages of trying I finally dropped to the ground. I was so exhausted from the mental strain that I just lay on the leaf-strewn dirt for a couple of minutes.

I spat out my wand from between my teeth and rolled over to stare at the sky.

I checked my watch, and what do you know? It read 3:54.

I let my hand drop to the ground. This was really a pain.

If it was this hard and I didn't even have to make the potion for it, I couldn't imagine how hard it would have been if I had to do all this from scratch.

Even though I didn't want to move, I couldn't just go right to sleep on the bare ground. I wasn't a Basilisk anymore, the Forbidden Forest was still a dangerous place.

So I forced myself to get to my feet and tiredly began the journey back to my dorms.